Old Piano Kitchen

In a historic NY mansion, Victorian antiques and an old piano stand in for kitchen cabinets.

A young N.Y. designer, Kohle Yohannan, fell in love with Greystone Court, a wreck of an old house in Yonkers, NY, bought it and then spent years fixing it up to rent out as a photo and film location. Meanwhile, he lives there. So while it’s a house with a history, it’s also a theatrical backdrop — hence a kitchen renovated too look very old, even though it has a built in SubZero and a double oven restaurant size Garland range. What’s interesting about the kitchen though, is the way furniture stands in for kitchen cabinets — particularly the kitchen’s island. There, an old piano base was cut down and repurposed — topped with marble and inset with a prep sink. Just the right height for a work top, the island has sculptural legs and a lovely wood grain.

Essentially, this kitchen has no cabinets. ere are no modern cabinets. Out of favor late 19th century antiques — a pair of Neo Renaissance credenzas — are used for storage along with a tall English ebonized display cabinet with glass doors and a mirror back. While it may look authentically old, the kitchen actually was a gut job. The tin ceiling is new, as is the black and white checkerboard floor and wooden triangle canopy for the range hood but all provide period details. To the left of the range, a niche was created to house an espresso machine and microwave. In contrast, gilded, mirrored 18th century French style doors to the kitchen are echoed by a slim pier mirror adjacent to the refrigerator. As confections go, this kitchen is gem. Yet clearly it remains function for the owner, or a renter, at the same time.

[…] hutch, dresser or even an old piano — which was done for a quirky Victorian home I featured in my Old Piano Kitchen post. But for this 1881 brick house restoration, Roberto Peregalli and his design partner Laura […]

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